Removing the Stumbling Blocks - Part 1 — Dan Augsburger

Removing the Stumbling Blocks — Part 1

Father in heaven, I'm grateful that this morning we have the opportunity to meet together in this building to once again consider prayer. To discuss prayer is to discuss miracles that have taken place.

I pray, Father, that you will bless us, that you'll make it relevant to us, that our lives can be changed by the time spent. Empty me of myself. Please forgive me, Lord, of my sins. Please forgive my friends of their sins as well that they might be able to hear.

Blind Bartimaeus and Persistent Faith

Might they, Father, come into contact with you. And I thank you that you are more than able to do whatever is needed for whoever is here this afternoon. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. In the book of Mark, in the 10th chapter, in verse 46, as we get started, there's a story of a man that's known as Blind Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus had a problem. He'd been with him for quite some time. He was blind. And he would sit by the road begging. He couldn't change his circumstances, but one day Jesus came down that road with his disciples.

And I can imagine that Blind Bartimaeus could hear the noise of the crowd coming. And as he heard the crowd coming, he realized that he had an opportunity of a lifetime to change his circumstances. And so he cried out.

But it's interesting, people warned him to stay quiet, quiet down because perhaps they had other things that they wanted to do. Maybe they wanted to talk to Jesus themselves. And they told him quiet, warned him to be quiet.

But instead of that, he cried out all the louder because it was a chance of a lifetime opportunity for his circumstances to change. It's because he cried out louder that something happened. I wish I could say that prayer is something that is universally accepted by all Christians equally, that all believe in it, all would do it.

But I have to tell you that sometime back, it goes back quite a few years, I was at a camp meeting and I encouraged some young women to share a testimony of how one of the husbands of these young women had left and gotten involved with another woman.

And they had decided they were going to pray together until God changed the circumstances. And they did. They prayed together hours. And then it suddenly felt that God had heard their prayer. And they thanked God they went to bed that night.

It was very late. And lo and behold, the next day, the husband came back. They rejoiced. And I was at the camp meeting. I told the people there, I said, you know, instead of my sharing on prayer in kind of an abstract teaching kind of way, just let these young women share their story.

And actually, a pastor came to me and said, Dan, is it fair to suggest to people that their prayers can be answered? I know of a lot of people who pray and pray and don't get answers. Is it fair? And it saddened me.

But the truth is that there are people who have not seen answers for whatever reason and therefore sometimes struggle to pray. It's been my experience, though, that God answers prayer often far more than we expected.

Intercession and the Power of Persistent Prayer

And that's why it's well worth taking the time to study this matter. There were some missionaries. They were over in China. They hadn't been there very long. They had studied together at Knox College in Toronto.

And they had met, they had committed their lives to serving God. The man's name was Jonathan Goforth. His wife was Rosalind. He had come from London, Ontario. He had been very committed to God, and therefore he had been going to the poor sections of town to share the gospel with those people.

He had been busily studying his Bible. He had been doing what he could to make a difference for God before he went to China. And eventually he had met Rosalind and had felt called to propose to her so that they could serve God together.

He did, but he said, Rosalind, you misunderstand something very important. God will always have the last word in our lives, no matter what happens. She thought for a moment, she said, I'm not sure I like the sound of that.

I'd like to think that I could have a bit of a say, but she said, no, I've always prayed all my life that I would marry someone who was fully committed to God and a man fully committed to God would truly want to let God have the last word.

So she'd agreed. They'd gotten engaged. They headed off to China. With them was a companion who was able to learn the Chinese language very easily, but Jonathan had a great deal of difficulty. A great deal of difficulty.

And one day he told his wife, Rosalind, he said, Rosalind, unless God intervenes, we may as well go back home because I'm just not picking up the Chinese language. What good is it for me to go into the marketplace and try and share the gospel in English when no one can understand English?

This was back in the, I believe, in the late 1800s, early 1900s. So they made it a matter of prayer. They said, Lord, you know, Jonathan needs your help to be able to share the gospel. He went off that day.

When he came home, he was smiling. He said, you know, the funniest thing happened as I was speaking in the marketplace. Suddenly I was speaking Chinese words that I hadn't been able to speak before. In fact, those words were coming together into sentences.

It was obvious the people could understand me and the people, you know, were talking to me and I could understand them. Somehow, today, God gave me the gift of the Chinese language. He rejoiced. Several months later, he got a letter in the mail.

It came from the students at Knox College. And it said, Dear Pastor Goforth, on such and such a day, we were led to pray very specifically for you. And the Holy Spirit was so present in our midst, we knew that something had happened.

Would you please look on your diary to see what might have happened on that day? And lo and behold, that was the very day that God had given them, given him the gift of the Chinese language. They rejoiced.

Now, there was a group far away who felt called to pray. They prayed specifically. They prayed until they knew that something had happened. They had pushed, right? Pray until something happens. And Jonathan had received the gift of the Chinese language and went on to be used by God in a great way to bring revival first to China.

He would plant churches one a month for a time in the interior of China. And then later he went to Korea where he began revival after revival after revival. You can read about those revivals in a book called By My Spirit, all because somewhere there were people praying.

Biblical Examples of Intercessory Prayer

As we read this morning, prayer has always been the engine of revival, the engine of evangelism, the engine of changed lives. And so we need to be praying. If you would look in your Bibles at the book of Lamentations, Lamentations 2.

Lamentations 2, verse 19. Lamentations is a little book. For those of you that don't look in your Bibles often, it comes right after a larger book called Jeremiah. Lamentations 2. And I want to take my time this morning.

I was a bit rushed in looking up verses sometimes. I want to make sure that you can all find it for yourselves. Jeremiah here is speaking of a group of people who truly were crying out because they had a burden.

Their heart cried out to the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Give your eyes no rest. That's verse 18. Now verse 19. Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the watches.

Put out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands towards him for the life of your young children who faint from hunger at the head of every street. Jeremiah speaks of the fact that there can come a point where people pour out their hearts like water for God to make a change in their circumstances.

Look at Isaiah chapter 62 verse 6. Isaiah chapter 62 verse 6. We're going to read verses 6 and 7. It says there, I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day or night.

You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent and give him no rest till he establishes and till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Now if you know the story of Isaiah and what was going on in his country at that time, you know that it was a difficult time.

And God was saying, Don't give God any rest until something has happened, until he makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. And there is certainly the need of that kind of thing in our day. I believe prayer is one of the more effective weapons that God has given us to bring about those kinds of changes.

I believe so. This morning we talked about some of the things that can hinder answers to prayer. This first session I want to talk about what it means to intercede on behalf of other people. But I must tell you something, that depending on what we're praying about, how soon the answer comes varies.

In other words, if I'm praying about something having only to do with myself, we should expect to have those prayers answered fairly quickly. And I'm doing this from memory, so I may have the numbers wrong.

But as I recall, George Mueller makes a statement such as, I prayed 50 ,000 prayers in my life. I mean, he literally wrote them down. And he said 30 ,000 of those prayers were answered the same day. A huge percentage of prayers were answered the very same day.

He went to the trouble to say, I found that I would pray and God would answer right away. And people who have been in relationship with God and praying much have found that God often answers just that way.

But it's because it has to do with them and God. And they can live and seek to know God's will and live in a way that is good for God's kingdom, will advance His kingdom, it's good for them, and it is God's purpose to answer prayers quickly.

But sometimes when we are praying for another person, sometimes when we are praying for another person, it takes longer. And I was sharing with you a little bit about the story of Blind Bartimaeus. And remember in the story of Blind Bartimaeus, I will remind you of it if you don't know the story.

He cried out because he was unwilling to have his situation remain the same. It was an unacceptable situation. And finally, Jesus stops, recognizes him, and calls him. And the Bible says that in going, he had to throw off his coat.

He threw off his coat. And a lot of us, when we come to God and we're praying, we discover in the process of praying that there is baggage that we have been carrying that stands in the way. That's what is about our relationship.

But sometimes the people we're praying for have their own baggage, quote, unquote. Maybe they have gotten into a lifestyle that is very hard to break free from. Maybe there's an area in their life where they say, man, I know what I should be doing, but I refuse.

Well, we cannot force God to change their minds. We cannot force God to bring them to repent. And so often, just as God needed time to change our lives, it takes time for God to change their lives. So, welcome.

Welcome. And so, George Miller, for example, who I believe is one of the greatest praying people that ever lived, he said, I have prayed for more than 50 years for the sons of a friend of mine. Prayed every day for more than 50 years to bring about the conversion of the sons of one of his friends.

Many of us would like to believe that if we pray, you know, within a week, within a month, whatever God is going to answer, that is not the reality. Okay, and that's why I like to use a history. I like to use history to remind you that when we talk about praying on an intercessory basis for other people, it can take much longer.

The Bible is full of examples of individuals who were interceding on behalf of other people. Some that come to mind are, for example, Abraham. Remember when God was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

What happened? God sent angels to Abraham. We can look it up if you want. I mean, not Luke, Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18, verses 20 to 33. We're not going to read the whole thing. But here God is having a conversation with Abraham.

These people have come. The Lord said, because of the outcry against Sodom, verse 20, and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very great, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it, excuse me, that has come to me, and if not, I will know.

Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? God, would you actually destroy righteous people in the process of what you're doing with the wicked?

Suppose there were 50 within the city. Would you also destroy that place? And he goes down, smaller and smaller numbers, until finally he says, God, would you destroy the place if there were still 10 righteous people?

And God is willing because Abraham is somewhat speaking on behalf of those people. We find in the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. Exodus is the book after Genesis. Verses 10 to 12.

Now we find Moses. The children of Israel have not been obeying God. They've been greatly favored. And so now Moses is speaking out. He says, So Joshua did as Moses said to him. Well, that's a different story.

Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And so it was when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed, and when his hand let down, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses' hands became heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and the other on the other side. I have the story slightly mixed up, but the point is that they were out doing battle for God, and somehow as Moses interceded on behalf of the armies, they succeeded.

When his hands were lifted up, they succeeded. When they fell down, somehow they retreated. Today, those who lead in this church need your support by way of prayer. It can make a significant, significant difference.

I'd like to have you look at some specific examples beyond that. A few more. Let's look at Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. Here's another example of someone who is interceding on behalf of his people.

We're just going to look at several examples. Daniel chapter 9, verses 1 to 21. We find in verse 3, actually chapter 2, chapter 9, verse 2, in the first year of his reign, Daniel chapter 9, starting in verse 2.

In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

Then I set my face towards the Lord God to make a request by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. As Daniel had been studying the Bible, the Scriptures, he realized that a prophecy that had been given regarding God's people was coming to an end as far as he could tell they were remaining in captivity.

So it says, I set my face towards God to make a request by prayer and supplications. In verse 4, it says, O Lord, my God. I said, O Lord, great and awesome God who keeps covenant and mercy with those who love him and with those who keep his commandments.

We have sinned and committed iniquity. We've done wickedly and rebelled even by departing from your precepts and your judgments. Neither have we heeded your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all people of the land.

It's interesting that here Daniel is actually praying a prayer of confession with the word our, we. He's confessing in a corporate way saying, we have been guilty before you. He says, O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us shame of face.

And it goes on. He's asking God to not allow the things to happen that he fears. But God hears that prayer. God hears that prayer. He gives him what he's looking for. He gives him the understanding. Look at the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 20, Jehoshaphat.

2 Chronicles chapter 20. It's after kings. First and second kings and then Jehoshaphat. And I want to establish what I'm talking about in the Bible first and then I will tell you quite a few stories. So just hang in there.

We will study the Bible first and then I will give you some practical stories as well. 2 Chronicles chapter 20, verses 3 to 13. We won't look at the whole story. And it happened after this time. I'm starting in verse 1.

It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon and others with them besides the Ammonites came to battle against Jehoshaphat. He faced a great problem. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, a great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria, and they are in Hazazan Tamar, which is in En Gedi.

And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court and said, O Lord God, our fathers, are you not God in heavens and do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations?

And in your hand is there not power and might so that no one is able to withstand you? So he goes on continuing to talk to God about their problem. He says, Are you not our God, verse 7, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend, forever?

And they dwell in it and have built you a sanctuary in it, etc. Verse 11, And here they are rewarding us, speaking of what they had done to the Israelites earlier when they had not hurt them going to the land of Israel, coming to throw us out of your possession which you have given us to inherit.

O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us. Nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. This multitude is far stronger than we.

We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. He was begging God for help. The story goes on to continue that then the Spirit of God came upon one of their number who said, Listen, God has told me something.

Tomorrow go down and do such and such and you will see a great victory take place. Here Jehoshaphat was facing a great problem. He was a king in the Old Testament and he prayed and God responded and his situation changed.

Prayer Partners and Practical Intercession

Now, you might be listening there saying, Damn, those stories are good. Those happened to people in the Old Testament. Does it really work? I don't think I shared it to the group studying prayer. I think I shared it another time.

But I have a friend who began a ministry for children called Your Story Hour. This was a man who believed in intercessory prayer. He told me one day, Dan, he said, I was concerned about organization and I began to pray and confess using these intercessory prayers.

If there was a living saint, Uncle Dan, I refer to him as Stanley. His name was Stanley Hill, was a living saint. He said, Dan, I prayed the prayer of Solomon, the prayer of Hezekiah, the prayer of Daniel.

He said, after I was done, God said you are going to receive $100 ,000 by the end of the month for this ministry. He called me after he prayed to let me know, not at the end of the month. By the end of the month, $100 ,000 had come in the mail to support Your Story Hour.

Now, that's not bad, that's a true story. Wonderful thing. I shared this with the group. He believed in what God would do. He told me also once when he was reading, a bit more on Stanley, that as he read this letter from a woman who had written him, he said, God impressed me, she was going to marry me.

He was in his 80s. He called me. He called me to tell me these kinds of things. I told him, you're crazy. But he said, no, Dan, God has told me. He had been praying specifically, actually confessing these prayers, but he was a saint.

He so identified with what was going on within his organization, so recognized the need that he began praying, begging God, and that's when God began to impress him with specific things. We find also the story of prayer in, I believe it's in Nehemiah.

Nehemiah chapter 1. Nehemiah is a little book. It comes not too long after Chronicles, starting in verse 3. And just to give you some background, he was working away in a far distant country, and some people came back from where his people were being held in captivity.

The children of Israel, God's people, had been taken in captivity to another country. And in verse 3, they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach.

The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and the gates are burned with fire. So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

He said, I got this report that things were not going well at all for my people. And he said, I mourned and I wept. I sat down and I prayed. And I said, I prayed, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you are you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments.

Please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night. Notice his persistence. I pray before you now, day and night.

We continue. That you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night. I'm reading in verse 6. For the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you, both my father's house and I have sinned.

There was another righteous saint saying, we have sinned. We've acted corruptly, etc., etc. And then he begins to ask God to intervene on behalf of his people. A couple of elements are coming out in what we're talking about.

Here are godly people, sainted people, who hear about the situation, become very burdened, and begin to pray. But in all cases, don't have it within their means to change anything. When you are praying and interceding, often it's without having any means of changing the circumstance.

It's just praying and asking God to work. Jesus spoke of the same thing. If you want to turn in the book of Luke, I believe it's in chapter 11, yes, in verse 5, Jesus says there,. And he said to them, Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves?

Now, would you go to a friend at midnight for some trivial reason? No. You wouldn't go to the friend and say, By the way, I was wondering what was the score of, I don't know, the rugby team or something.

I don't know what you follow down here. You wouldn't go at midnight, would you? They would be rather offended. Wouldn't you agree? But it says, Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves?

For a friend of mine has come to me on his journey and I have nothing to set before him. I have what? Nothing to set before him. The hand was empty, nothing. And he will answer from within and say, Do not trouble me, the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, though he will not rise and give to you because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, because of his asking, I'm adding those words, he will rise and give him what?

As many as he needs. So when we're interceding, we're talking about a situation where we recognize that there's a need. It's an urgent need. We have nothing. And we go and we notice. We have to persist, sometimes, not always, and God responds and gives us whatever it is that we need.

That was in Luke chapter 11, if you're wondering, starting in verse 5. Luke chapter 11. Now, I'd like to share with you some stories that kind of illustrate what this means on a practical basis. A famous Christian who I'd love to talk about is a man named Hudson Taylor.

Persistent Prayer for Conversion and Revival

Hudson Taylor was raised in a very godly home. His father was a pastor. But like some of us, some of you, as hard as he tried, he found it impossible to live a godly life. Tried very hard, but found it impossible to live a godly life.

And so, in his teenage years, he said, I've tried, I've failed, I'm going to give up. But his mother was unwilling to give up on him, and she was a praying mother. And for those of you that have praying parents, you are greatly blessed.

Greatly, greatly blessed. And one day, when she was away from her home, she said, I'm going to pray this afternoon until Hudson becomes a Christian. That's what she said. She literally said, I'm going to pray, and I'm going to keep on praying until Hudson becomes a Christian.

And she began praying, earnestly imploring God, earnestly asking God to change his life. At some point, God worked a miracle, and she sensed it. Hudson Taylor, who had been at home, had wandered into his father's study, and there had come upon a tract that looked interesting.

He said to himself, tracts always have good stories. I will read the tract, you know, in terms of the story, but I'll skip all the religious stuff, because I'm not interested in the religious stuff. But while he was reading the story, he came upon the words, the finished work of Christ.

And he suddenly realized that Jesus had won something for him when he died on the cross that could never be taken away. Like Bunyan said, I discovered my righteousness is in heaven. My good frame can't add to it.

My bad frame can't take away from it. And he became a rejoicing Christian. His life was forever changed based on what he read in that tract. Mom, who had been praying at the other house, suddenly was sensing that her prayer had been heard, and she began rejoicing too.

Now, Hudson Taylor told his sister and made her promise that she wouldn't tell mom. But when they finally got together, mom was rejoicing, and he suspected that sister had shared. But his mom said, no, I was praying, and God impressed me that my prayer had been heard.

She decided that she was going to pray until something happened. Now, it's interesting that later Hudson Taylor went as a missionary to China. His parents never told him until after, I believe he was in China, that at his birth he had been dedicated to God as a missionary for China.

You see, they had set him apart for a special purpose at a young age, and she knew that God needed her labor, and so she had prayed and prayed persistently, kept praying until something happened, and she rejoiced to see her son completely converted.

One time, D .L. Moody, who crossed the ocean from America and went to Chicago, he was tired from having spoken in many meetings, and he thought to himself, I'm just going to go and enjoy listening to other people.

I'm not going to volunteer to speak. But a pastor recognized Moody and asked him if he would be willing to come and speak at his church. And Moody had, like some speakers, had found it, wasn't able to say no.

He said he was willing to go. And so he'd gone to the morning service, and as he preached there, he discovered the people were as icy as can be. They were not interested in hearing what he had to say.

And he was sorry, sorry that he even accepted the invitation, but he'd accepted to go back that evening. And as he began preaching, suddenly it was as if the windows of heaven opened and the Holy Spirit was poured out, because suddenly the people were responsive.

He made an appeal at the end and asked the people to make a choice for Jesus, and the entire church responded. He didn't know what was going on. He didn't know what was going on. And so he told the people, he said, you know, this is a major commitment for God.

If you want to talk with me further, I'd like to meet with you in the inquirer's room, the place where you talk with the pastor. And the whole group got up to go out to talk. Moody looked at the pastor and said, what gives?

And the pastor shrugged his shoulder. He'd never seen such a thing. Moody went off later to Ireland, and when he arrived in Ireland, there was a telegram waiting for him which said revival has broken out.

You must come back to London. And it was not only that church. It was many churches around that area. Moody didn't know to what to attribute the revival, because he'd preached, but you know it wasn't anything in particular that he'd done.

He knew that. But later he ran across two women who were in their 80s, one of which was an invalid. She couldn't even get out of bed, but she'd said to herself, I believe that I can pray for my church.

I can pray for my church. I can't do anything else, but I can pray. I can pray while I'm in bed. And she had been praying and had come across a magazine which had mentioned this preacher from America by the name of D .L. Moody that seemed to be touching so many churches.

And so she began praying every day, God, please send D .L. Moody to my church. God, please send D .L. Moody to my church. And one day when her sister came home from church, on the day that Moody had come to the church in the morning, she asked her sister, well, what happened?

And she said, well, there's this visitor from America, D .L. Moody. And she said, hold my food. I must pray. I must pray. And she spent the whole afternoon praying. And that evening a revival broke out that not only affected her church, but many churches in England.

It was an amazing thing. Why? Because there was someone who said, I can pray. Some people have suggested, and I believe they're true, they're right, that actually prayer is the greatest thing that we can possibly do for God.

It actually does more than work. Now, we must work, too, but we can't work until we've prayed. Would you agree? We cannot work effectively until we have prayed. Another favorite person that I've learned so much from is a man named Charles Finney.

Charles Finney was probably the greatest revivalist that ever lived. When Charles Finney came to towns, there was sometimes such an effect that the theaters and the prisons in town could close down because there were no patrons.

No one was going to the theater. People weren't going to the bars. It just kind of cleaned up the entire town. A great revivalist. But before Finney would go into a town, there were always those people going ahead of him and praying.

There was one man by the name of Daniel Nash and another brother by the name of Abel Cleary, and they would pray. It's interesting. They used a list when they prayed. They would make a list, and Daniel Nash, he liked to pick out the hardest cases to pray for, and he would pray, and he would pray, and by the time Finney came, somehow hearts had been so touched, so softened by those prayers that when Finney began to pray, I mean began to preach, people were converted, and literally thousands and thousands of people came to God.

In some towns, like Rochester, New York, it was a revival that began with the more educated class. In other towns, it was with the simple woodsmen. It didn't matter. Now, it's interesting that at some point, Daniel Nash and Abel Cleary passed off.

One of them died. Maybe they both died. I don't remember if both of them died, but when Daniel Nash died, Finney resigned from his preaching and became the president of Oberlin College because he felt that he could not have success without those prayers.

Now, I do a lot of preaching. I go to a lot of places, but you know, before I go, I have a circle of praying people who I write, and I say, Dan, going to such and such a place, please pray, and I can assure you, it makes all the difference in the world.

When I left on this trip, I was sitting in L .A. airport. I had a long delay in L .A., and I was just sitting there. Suddenly, my phone rang, and it was a saint from Alberta, Canada. It said, Dan, I was thinking of you, and I said, Ben, you've prayed at just the right time.

You have prayed at just, I mean, you've called at just the right time, and we were able to pray together on the phone, and I believe that one of the reasons, for example, that God has blessed me while I've been here in this town is because of the prayers of Ben Lippert up in Lacombe, Canada.

A great man of God. Great man of God. He's also in his 80s. He has pernicious anemia. He has diabetes that's often out of control. Lives in a simple, simple place, but you know, he lives to pray. He lives to serve God, and when I'm going somewhere, if Ben is praying for me, I know there'll be a power attending my words that would not be there did I not pray.

I would like to suggest to all of you this afternoon that you should all have someone praying for you. You need to find a prayer partner, someone that will pray for you on a consistent basis. I have prayer partners.